FIG. 1 depicts a schematic diagram of network 100 in the prior art. Network 100 operates in accordance with a set of protocols, and comprises shared-communications medium 102 and telecommunication stations 101-1 through 101-K, wherein K is a positive integer. Network 100, for example, can be an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 local area network with shared-communications medium 102 representing the radio frequency spectrum with which stations 101-1 through 101-K communicate.
Host computing devices (e.g., personal computers, personal digital assistants, etc.) use stations 101-1 through 101-K to communicate with each other or with other devices. Examples of other devices include printer servers, email servers, file servers, etc. Each of stations 101-1 through 101-K connects with a host computing device in the form of a peripheral card called a “network interface card” (NIC).
Wireless network providers are making wireless media, such as shared-communications medium 102, available in an increasing variety of places, such as coffee shops, fast food restaurants, business-class airport lounges, etc. Many of these wireless network providers require a user to have a pre-existing account or at least a properly-configured station. A potential user that wanders into an area served by a wireless network—for instance, to wait a few hours for a flight—might have handy a host computing device, such as a laptop. The potential user, however, might not have handy a network interface card that enables convenient access to the particular network of interest.